Barclays Customers Can Finally Use Apple Pay

Michael Moore joined TechWeek Europe in January 2014 as a trainee before graduating to Reporter later that year. He covers a wide range of topics, including but not limited to mobile devices, wearable tech, the Internet of Things, and financial technology.

Barclays becomes the final major UK bank to support Apple Pay after months of delays

Apple Pay‘s UK rollout has passed a significant milestone after Barclays finally confirmed its customers would be able to use the contactless payment service.

Barclays is the last major British bank to support Apple Pay, and missed its self-imposed March deadline, but from today, millions of Barclays and Barclaycard customers will be able to use their Apple devices to pay for goods and services at over 400,000 contactless locations in the UK.

Apple Pay works with the iPhone SE, iPhone 6 and later, and Apple Watch, and can be used to make in-app purchases, for which it can also be used with the iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 4 and iPad Pro.

Passion

“We are passionate about helping customers access services and carry out their day to day transactions in the way that suits them,” said Ashok Vaswani, CEO of Barclays UK.

“As part of this, we have developed a range of digital innovations that allow people to choose how, when and where they bank and make payments.

“Adding to the existing choice, from today both Barclays debit and Barclaycard credit card customers can use Apple Pay to make payments with their Apple device across the UK.”

Delays

The launch follows months of delays from Barclays in providing Apple Pay, which has been in use across nearly all of the other major UK banks for some time since its initial launch back in July 2015.

The company initially refused to comment on its support for the service, but CEO Ashok Vaswani finally revealed back in January that it would relent and launch Apple Pay later this year.

This reluctance was likely due to Barclays looking to pressure its customers into using its own NFC service linked to their Barclaycard payment cards, which allows customers to make contactless NFC payments of up to £30, as well as ongoing support for its own bPay mobile payment technology.

Barclays has also refused to support Android Pay, Google’s rival mobile payments platform, saying last month that it has no plans to work with the service and will instead work on its own platform.

“At this stage we are not planning on participating in Android Pay in the UK,” a Barclays spokesperson told TechWeekEurope “In January this year we introduced a contactless mobile payment feature to the Barclaycard Android app that allows customers with an Android phone to make contactless payments for £30 and under, and at some retailers for up to £100.”